Nokia, the worlds largest cell-phone maker, has announced that it will launch a new mobile payments service called Nokia Money. The new mobile financial service will offer consumers with mobile devices, access to basic financial services. The new service will allow consumers to send money to another person, pay for goods and services and pay for utility bills and top-up pre-paid phones. Nokia are building a network of Nokia Money agents where consumers can deposit or withdraw cash from their accounts.

According to the Nokia press release mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage in many countries. The figures quoted are "6 billion mobile phones but only 1.6 million bank accounts". Nokia will targeting emerging economies with this service. The service is being launched in conjunction with Obopay, a mobile payments provider operating in the US and India. Last year Nokia invested $70 million in Obopay. The Obopay service allows users to send money to a text-message enabled mobile phone. The sender can fund their account with cash or by linking their Obopay account to their credit card or bank account. The Nokia Money service will be launched at Nokia World in September 2009. It will be gradually rolled out out to selected markets in early 2010.

The mobile payments market is a crowded market with lots of companies offering mobile payment services that can be used both in the online and offline world. The partnership with Nokia will give Obopay a big edge over the other operators in this market. Using Nokia's distribution network they can easily extend their reach to many countries and possibly become the PayPal of the mobile payments industry.

Dave

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